The Humane State Program (HSP) provides training on disaster readiness, compassion fatigue, investigations and many other topics relevant to shelter, rescue and law enforcement

Disease control and animal health

A disease outbreak serves as a wake-up call on the preventive measures every shelter can take to help decrease germ exposure and minimize disease spread. Animal Sheltering's resources include vaccination protocols, proper nutrition, cleaning and disinfection, staff hygiene, decreasing animal stress, isolation and separation and more.

The basis of any healthy shelter environment is sanitation. A few upgrades to your practices can have a lifesaving effect for the animals in your care. Consider everything from the cleaning and disinfecting process to staff’s clothing to make sure that you’re achieving maximum cleanliness—and don’t forget to wash your hands!

Believe it or not, your skin cells, hair and clothing are fomites, and so is your cell phone and that pen you’re carrying around. A fomite is simply a nonliving object or material that can transmit infection.

Cats with dental problems may be suffering in silence

It wasn’t that long ago that we failed to understand pain in our companion animals. You may recall veterinarians in the past saying things like, “Animals don’t feel pain like we do.”

In fact, when I went to veterinary school in the late-1980s, we weren’t taught to provide pain relievers for animals after common procedures such as spay/neuter or dental work, including extraction of teeth. Typically, our patients received short-acting pain medicine in the hospital, and then were sent home to rest and recover.

Using the Five Freedoms to ensure quality of life for animals in our care

In my days working in a shelter, when I turned out the lights and left at the end of the day, I would ask myself one very important question: “Did I give each and every animal the best possible care today?”

I’m guessing you do the same. But how can we be certain? How do we know for sure that any animal is living a good quality life, let alone an animal living in a shelter environment? The answer lies in something called “The Five Freedoms.”